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Egypt Essay

Below is an essay on "Egypt" from Anti Essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples.

Religion was a major influence in ancient Egyptian society. Like myths in many other cultures, Egyptian myths serve to justify human traditions and to address fundamental questions about the world, such as the nature of disorder and the ultimate fate of the universe. The Egyptians explained these profound issues through statements about the gods. Egyptian deities represent natural phenomena, from physical objects like the earth or the sun to abstract forces like knowledge and creativity. The actions and interactions of the gods, the Egyptians believed, govern the behavior of all of these forces and elements. The true realm of the gods is mysterious and inaccessible to humans. Mythological stories use symbolism to make the events in this realm comprehensible.
“The civilization of ancient Egypt is one of the most compelling in this world and has attracted attention, both popular and scholarly, throughout the ages"1 (Ikram 2010) Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, whereas the earliest periods of time were linear. Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth and in doing so renew maat, the fundamental order of the universe. Amongst the most important episodes from the mythic past are the creation myths, in which the gods form the universe out of chaos.
Egyptians believed that whatever occurred in their lives or environment had a supernatural cause. Not understanding why events happened or how to control them, they considered something as familiar and central to their lives as the sun to be more than an astronomical object, it was the falcon god Ra. The Egyptians depended on the good will of their gods to grant what they wanted. Lacking scientific laws to...